Lightening Online

When it comes to clever marketing, I think cleaning products would have to rate right up there in terms of products that have created a market for themselves.

I mean, we all HATE to clean and LOVE to play, right? We are perfect sitting ducks for ruthless entrepreneurs who want to make their riches from us.

“Here, buy my product, it’ll make cleaning a breeze”

“Buy this and you won’t even know you’re cleaning”

“Life getting you down? This product will solve ALL your problems”

Don’t feel bad if you think you’ve been “sucked in” by these kind of advertisements. The fact of the matter is that companies employ psychological research when it comes to how to market their products.

They KNOW how to play on our weaknesses and fears. IT STINKS!!!

When you go down the cleaning aisle of your supermarket, do you KNOW what you are paying for? You are paying for the advertisement that convinced you you need that cleaning product in the first place!!!!

I’ll just repeat that last sentence in case you didn’t get it the first time….

You are paying for the advertisement that convinced you you need that cleaning product in the first place.

When that concept really sinks in, it’s a real DOH! kind of moment. I know because I’ve been there.

Want to know what I use when cleaning?

WATER

If you exclude washing dishes and clothing, around 80% of my cleaning is done with a wet cloth.

Guess how much that costs me a week? ZERO DOLLARS

And for cleaning with? Old face washers and cut up towels. I do also have a microfibre mop, a couple of microfibre cloths and a brush that I use on our tiles to scrub the grout.

Anyone Been to an Enjo Party?

I went to one a few years ago that really turned my thinking around when it came to cleaning. The demonstrator was cleaning the bathroom and mentioned that all you need to do is give is a wipe over with the bathroom mitt each day.

EACH DAY?

I was looking for the miracle that would lead me to need to clean LESS. Not MORE.

The sceptic in me couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if I wiped over our bathroom each day with just an old rag of some description.

So I tried it. It worked no problems. Without a fancy $40 microfibre cloth.

Do I wipe over our shower every day? No. But I do try to do it reasonably often and very rarely do I need to use any cleaning products at all.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not really anti-Enjo. I do use *some* of their products although it’s unlikely I’ll replace them as they wear out.

My point here is that Enjo promote cleaning with less effort but more often. It’s a great tip. It just doesn’t necessarily require their products in order to work. They also promote drying with a cloth as you go - another great cleaning tip!

Do I Really Use ONLY Water to Clean?

No. Just for the majority of my cleaning tasks.

When I get behind, I need the help of cleaning products to help me “catch up”.

For some tasks I’ll use vinegar or bicarb. Plain old soap is a great and frugal cleaning agent as well.

I do also use some commercial cleaning products.

I just think that too many people use a “product” as a FIRST resort rather than a LAST resort.

More Does Not Equal Better Cleaning Ability

When you do use commercial cleaning products, are you pouring your hard earned money down the drain?

Cut back on the amount you’re using. Remember that manufacturers are going to put a MAXIMUM reasonable measurement on their packaging instructions. To find out how much you *really* need, just cut back a little each time until you notice it doesn’t do the same job anymore (this is what I’ve done with my washing powder - although I also know someone who washes simply in water).

Cleaning isn’t Only Costing us the Earth, It’s Costing us the EARTH

The cleaning products I do use are almost all naturally based and considered safe for the environment. This is doubly important now that we recycle ALL of our household water onto the garden (via a proper system so that it’s treated etc).

Now more than ever we need to be very aware of what we’re putting down our drains. The great thing about green cleaning is that it is often more frugal than chemical cleaning. Of course, now that we have an established market for green cleaning products, caution still needs to be had so that we aren’t talked into parting with our money unecessarily.

Summary For Reducing How Much You Spend on Cleaning

1. Try Water first
2. Recycle old facewashers, towels and other fabric to use as cleaning cloths. Throw through the washing machine and reuse (it’s best to edge cut up towels etc to reduce fraying)
3. Use soap, vinegar & bicarb soda as cleaning agents
4. Where you do choose to use a cleaning product, consider purchasing from an environmentally aware company and use SPARINGLY
5. Avoid getting taking in by bright and cheerful advertisements promising you the world

Affiliate Link:

From time to time, I get asked whether my $100 a week average grocery spend includes non food items.  To give you a bit of an idea, I’ll summarise below.

Items I DO Include Under Groceries 

• Toilet Paper
• Tissues
• Some cleaning cloths (such as for washing up dishes)
• Soap
• Shampoo’s etc
• Toothpaste, toothbrushes and floss
• Cleaning Products
• Dishwashing Liquid and Dishwasher Powder etc
• Laundry Detergents, Fabric Softeners etc
• Pegs
• Garbage Bags & Bin Liners
• Glad Wrap, Alfoil, Snap Lock Bags, Freezer Bags, Baking Paper etc

Items I DON’T Include Under Groceries

• Make Up and Skin Care - I have a personal care category for these and also use my own spending money
• Nappies &  Wipes - I used to have a “baby” category for these (and dummies etc) but now we only have a few dry nites to buy so these also come under “personal care”
• Houehold items like mops, mop heads, toilet brushes etc - these come out of our “household” budget
• Bandaids, Panadol and other “medical” type items come out of our medical budget
• Stationery items also come under “household”
• Toys and stickers for the kids - the kids have their own budget category which covers sporting activities, music lessons, tennis coaching and a few little bits and pieces that I buy from time to time (toys, stickers, craft supplies etc)

I hope that helps to clarify things for you.  One of the dangers of comparing your spending to someone else’s is that the term “groceries” is rather broad and while some people will include anything that can be bought in a grocery store, others will divide off certain items.

There is no RIGHT or WRONG way to organise things here.  It’s just a personal preference.  I find the larger costing items can throw both my budget and my tracking out and make it harder to see where we’re up to from week to week.

What I do works for ME and while you are more than welcome to do the same, please don’t feel that my way is the ONLY way.  This is also why I encourage you to compete with yourself when it comes to reducing the grocery budget.

The real victory comes not when you manage to achieve the same grocery figure as me.  The real victory is when you realise that once upon a time you spent $X and now you’re spending $10 (insert whatever figure you like here) less. 

No doubt there are some items that I’ve failed to include on either of these lists.  If you have a question about where I include certain items in my budget, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll endeavour to answer it.

Next week, I’ll go through those items that I DO include and explain ways that I’ve found to reduce our spending in the area of non-food items.  I *was* planning to include of all this in todays post but I’m rather tired after being away so you’ll have to forgive me for making you wait another week.

For some time now, I have wanted to grow my own Aloe Vera plant. It has to be one of the handiest plants for saving money on medical supplies. I FINALLY have 2!!! For a grand cost of ….NOTHING!!!! It took me some time but I eventually found sombody with their own plant who potted up not 1 but 2 plants for me!!! Gotta love a freebie! Especially a freebie that could well SAVE me quite a bit of money over the long term!I have been doing some research into the benefits and uses of Aloe Vera. I figured while I was doing the research, it might be helpful to put together a blog post about the benefits of Aloe Vera. A lot of these are anecdotal benefits (there haven’t been scientific studies done to “verify” them). Please use some common sense and caution when first using Aloe Vera in case you or your family members have some sensitivity to it.

External Benefits:

skin moisturiser

relief of sunburn

anti-inflammatory

promotes healing

relief for burns

insect stings

itchy rashes

antimicrobal

relief from eczema & psoriasis

relief from acne

aids healing of scrapes and abrasions

scalp care

sore muscles

cold sores

bruises

sprains

arthritis

anti-ageing (apparently Cleopatra used to bathe in Aloe Vera juice to help maintain her youthful appearance)

Internal Benefits:

aids digestion

assists with bowel problems

lower cholesterol levels

fight infection

reduce inflammation

absorb toxins

heal ulcers

aid circulation

alkalises digestive juices which can aid indigestion

aid immune system

GROWING YOUR OWN

How to Grow Aloe Vera plants

This link provides a detailed explanation on how to care for and grow your own Aloe Vera plant. I learnt the hard way that they don’t like frosts. My first attempt at growing a plant from a cutting in our garden some years ago met with limited success as the plant curled up it’s toes at the first frost. Apparently they are 95% water which is why they don’t like frosts. Interesting that they are able to survive on fairly low levels of watering though. They obviously hold onto their water well. I’m sure the shape of the leaf and the thickness of it’s outer coating have something to do with that!

Now I’m growing a couple of plants in pots and so far they seem to be growing and thriving well. They seem to thrive on neglect which makes them a perfect plant for me to grow!!! I tip a bit of water into mine occasionally and they seem fine. If I put the pots outside though, they need a lot more care and attention (I’m assuming due to a higher temperature and evaporation rate).

HARVESTING THE GEL FROM YOUR HOME GROWN PLANT

One of the great benefits of growing your own aloe vera plant is that you have fresh gel on hand at all times. In my opinion, fresh is always going to better than a bottled product that has had to be stabilised in order to give it some kind of shelf life. The down-side is that the juice surrounding the Aloe Vera gel can cause skin and bowel irritations in some people. To apply externally, some people simply break off a piece of the plant and apply the opened flesh to the wound. This is fine if you don’t have sensitive skin.

For those with sensitive skin or who would like to make use of the gel as an internal tonic, the following link provides step by step instructions on

How to Harvest Fresh Aloe Vera Gel

It also provides some explanation of various parts of the plant and which parts are of benefit to us as humans. The writer recommends harvesting a leaf when it is the size of your forearm. I grow my aloe vera in a pot so it’s not likely to get that big. I guess the point is the larger the leaf, the more gel you can harvest from it.

WHY I CHOOSE TO GROW MY ALOE VERA PLANTS INSIDE

I wanted to try growing an Aloe Vera plant in our bedroom as I read somewhere that it is a good plant for removing toxins from the air and aiding a restful sleep. Any plant will help to do this but those with a rubbery leaf texture like Aloe Vera are known to be particularly good at attracting dust particles. Plants also produce negative ions which are good for improving mood (so a MUST for me LOL).

I currently have 1 plant in our bedroom and 1 in the dining room (close to the kitchen).

Here are some links to articles on the benefits of indoor house plants:

Happy, Healing, Healthy Houseplants

Air Cleaning House Plants (mentions that Aloe will remove formaldehyde from the air)

Other interesting links

If you would like to read more on the benefits and uses of Aloe Vera, you might enjoy some of these links:

Herb Info - Aloe Vera

Herbal Information Centre - Aloe Vera

Benefits of Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera

Mayo Clinic on Aloe Vera

I hope you’ve found this article interesting and helpful. I’d love to hear of your own experiences with growing aloe vera and how you’ve made use of it’s many healing properties.

WARNING: This post contains material which may cause jealousy.  If you struggle with the green eyed monster when it comes to romantic husbands, please do NOT read any further.  LighteningOnline.com cannot accept any responsibility for fits of jealous rage, pouting, sulking, foot stomping, whining or any other behaviours or actions that may result from reading this post.  You do so at your own risk. 

You may have noticed that I haven’t been around much over the past couple of weeks.  My family have been staying at our in laws shack over the Christmas and New Year period.  I’ve popped back home a couple of times for quick “do the washing and other stuff” type reasons but for the most part we’ve been relaxing at the beach.

Farmboy’s sister and her family have also been staying there.  Between us we have 5 children although put together it can seem like 10 some days.  LOL.  It’s been lots of fun though.  My SIL called us back before Christmas and kindly offered to have our children for a night so that Farmboy and I could have a nice romantic night away.  Being the romantic practical person that he is, Farmboy suggested that instead of booking in to a nice romantic establishment by the seaside somewhere along the coast, that we instead come HOME.  Actually, this suited me quite well as at least I have internet access at home and could get a desperately needed “fix” while we were here!  Of course, this came with the added bonus of him being able to squeeze in some farmwork not having to book for any set night AND of course, not having to pay for any accomodation getting to sleep in our own bed! 

As it turned out, it was a good thing we decided to go this way as our youngest hadn’t been well so we brought him home with us too.  A nice romantic evening for two three.

We had to stop in for some food on our way home as I’d cleared out our fridge and taken all our fresh food down to the shack.  DH told me to leave everything to him, so I did!

Here’s what he rolled out……

Entre (we have this so seldom, I’m not even sure how to spell it!!!)

Freshly prepared prawn cocktails (my favourite)

Main Course

Flame grilled t-bone steak (from our 1/2 cow in the freezer) served with bbq roasted zucchini (freshly picked from the garden), carrots (some in fridge from the 5kg I bought before Christmas) and potato.  Accompanied by pink champagne (also my favourite).

To say it was delicious almost doesn’t do it justice.  It was suberb!!!!  Farmboy is sure turning into the BBQ king around here!

Pampering

We were so full after that we decided to postpone dessert until after our 4 year old was in bed.  Once he was safely tucked away DH ran a bath in our spa bath and we relaxed in the spa with more champagne, fresh strawberries and some Ferrero Rochers.    Twas delightful.  He even added some of my peppermint bath salts to the bath.  And gave me a foot massage in the bath.

Dessert (yes, there was still dessert to come after all of that!!!)

Strawberry cheesecake (generic - because we both really like the local generic brand cheesecake) served with ice cream and fresh cream and garnished with extra strawberries.  He was going to add a swirl of strawberry sauce to the plate but we didn’t have any left.  It’s the thought that counts though!

It was a really lovely evening!    The next morning when I woke up, he cooked me bacon and eggs for breakfast as well!!!  While he popped out to do a few jobs around the farm (like make sure the sheep had enough water), I treated myself to a microdermabrasian facial (I’ve been slack with skin care while we’ve been at the beach) and defuzzed with some Nair (I’m allergic to pain so waxing doesn’t really rate as an option for me!) and dry brushed my skin.  It was so lovely to take a little time out for myself.  DH took The Bomb with him so I had some nice quiet alone time (always something to be cherished!).

Estimated Costings and Savings:

Spa Room overnight $200

3 course dinner for 2 with champagne $150 (at least)

Cooked Breakfast for 2 $50

Massage $50

Hair Removal $30

Facial $30+

Total Potential Cost $500+

Total cost to us for food, champagne etc approx $60 (not including food already on hand)

That’s a pretty massive saving isn’t it?  Who said frugality had to be about deprivation?

Isn’t my DH a very clever bunny?  And a most adorable hunny?  Jealous yet? 

I like to add epsom salts to my bath.  It’s very relaxing and apparently the magnesium is absorbed through the skin while you soak.  This is good for me as I seem to be lacking in magnesium and I’m terrible at remembering to take supplements.  There is quite a bit of information available online spouting the benefits of epsom salts.

Earlier this year I bought a large bag of epsom salts from a horse supply place.  It’s much cheaper to buy there than in the supermarkets.   Given my mum is allergic to almost all perfumed bath salts, I decided it would be nice to make her up her own bath salts with just a bit of colouring and no scent.  We’re also doing small gifts for DH’s siblings and their partners this year so I thought something homemade like this might fit the bill for the females.

There has been quite a bit of talk on the Simple Savings* forum about homemade Christmas gifts.  One of the ideas that has been discussed is that of making Candy Cane bathsalts.  It sounded to me like a great concept for Christmas Gifts.  There are quite a number of recipes available on the internet.

I kept my “recipe” fairly simple with the main ingredient being epsom salts.  I also added some bicarbonate soda as that is supposed to help soften the skin.  The red has been coloured with food colouring and while most recipes say to add Peppermint Essential Oil, I just used Peppermint Essence as that’s what I had.

I made Glass Deco images to add to the jars and the tag I found at Organized Christmas .  You can also find a recipe there if you prefer not to just “wing it” like I did.    Here is a photo of the finished products.

Yesterday I mentioned I made shortbread for our children’s teachers as end of year/Christmas gifts.  It’s a bit of a tradition in this household that each year I make a large batch of shortbread to use for gifts and also as part of our Christmas yummies for ourselves (and whoever we’re sharing Christmas with).

It can actually be a bit of a trial some years finding a day that’s not too hot (we’re in summer here in Australia) in order to crank the oven up.  But it’s worth it.  What surprised me when I first started making these was how cheap they work out to make in comparison to how expensive shortbread is to buy.

 So, if you’re looking for a frugal gift for someone that’s sure to “wow”, considering making something like this.

LIGHTENING’S SHORTBREAD

250g butter (real butter not margarine)

125g castor sugar

300g plain flour

175g arrowroot

pinch salt

Allow butter to soften to room temperature.  Cream butter and sugar together (try not to eat too much of the yummy sweet buttery mixture).  Sift in arrowroot.  Add salt.  Slowly mix together and add enough plain flour for the mixture to form a firmish dough.  You may not need ALL of the flour and in some instances you may need a little more.  Flour can vary in how dry it is - older flours need more moisture.  Form into a ball and place in a covered bowl in the fridge (or wrap in plastic wrap).  Make sure you disguise your dough or your husband will keep pilfering bits of it until there is none left to cook!!!!

When mixture has become firm, roll out and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter.  I have a small star cookie cutter which is just perfect for these (I find a small cookie gives them a more decadent look).  The easiest way I find to roll out the dough is using a sheet of baking paper on top of the dough which prevents the roller from sticking to the dough (saves you having to shake flour all over the roller every 5 seconds too).

Bake slowly in a moderately slow oven (around 160C) for around 20 minutes or until the shortbread turns a pale golden colour.  While still warm, drop shapes into a bowl of castor sugar, turning so that they coat on all sides.  Cool on a rack.

Some more notes:

* arrowroot is a fine flour.  If you can’t get hold of this you could try substituting with an alternative fine flour.  I used half arrowroot and half cornflour yesterday (wanted a double batch and couldn’t find the rest of my arrowroot) and they taste no different to me.

* I usually make a double mix and use a single 500g packet of butter (that would be equivalent to a pound for those of you overseas).

* salt is the magic ingredient so DON’T leave it out. 

* if you don’t have time for all the rolling, cutting and dipping in castor sugar, you can make this mix up in one or two circle dishes, bake and then cut into wedges while still warm.

Conversions and explanations for those not in Australia:

* plain flour is simply flour with no raising agents in it (we have plain flour and self raising flour as our most common baking flours here)

* castor sugar is more finely ground than regular sugar (still granular - not a powder - but the granules are much smaller)

* 175g is approximately 6.2 ounces or 0.38 pounds

* 300g is approximately 10.5 ounces or 0.66 pounds

* 250g is 0.5 pounds (therefore doubling to use 500g is approximately 1 pound)

* 160C is 320F

Conversions were made using online conversion.

ENJOY!   (I need a smiley with a little santa hat on!)

Acknowledgement: This recipe was originally a Tonia Todman recipe that I’ve tweeked to make it how I like it.  I *think* I’ve made enough changes to the original that I can now claim it as my own.  Feel free to pass it around….. recipes are made for sharing!   Of course, a link back here is always appreciated.

I actually feel like a bit of a fraud posting on reducing the grocery budget at this time of year. I tend to find myself a little tempted and waylaid by all the fancy goodies the stores have out. LOL. I get a bit *too* festive and out the window go all my good intentions.

Anyway, I will plow on with what we did in order to reduce our grocery budget and more than likely it’ll be a good reminder to myself of what needs to happen.

If you haven’t yet read the first 3 posts in this series or would like to refresh your memory, you can find them here:

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three

Now last week I think I promised to start giving you some actual suggestions on ways to reduce the grocery budget. What I want to write about today may not seem like a proper tip but in a way it’s a really BIG tip that covers many categories. I want to talk about needs vs wants and my experience has been that acknowledging the difference between the 2 can make quite a big difference to the bottom line at the checkout.

This can actually be quite a confronting topic. Partly because the definition of a “need” vs a “want” can be quite a subjective and controversial subject. But mostly because I believe in western societies we have lost touch with reality when it comes to what we really NEED. (My apologies to anyone reading that isn’t residing in a western society - I can’t comment on your situation so you’ll need to make up your own minds here).

Now don’t panic on me here. I am not suggesting here that you *SHOULD* reduce your grocery spending to bare bones physical needs. What I am suggesting though is that we all need to take a good hard look at WHAT we buy and WHY and begin to recognise more just how blessed we are.

As human beings, we really hate to think of ourselves as being deprived. If we’re feeling deprived, the temptation is to go out and spend more money in an effort to prove to ourselves that we’re not “deprived”. Then of course, we no longer have that money, something has to give somewhere else and in the end we become more “deprived” than when we first started. It’s one of those vicious cycles that we really want to avoid if at all possible.

So I found that I needed to reduce our grocery spending without us feeling deprived (to avoid an unecessary spending circle). And let’s face it, how many of us have really EVER been truly deprived? The great thing about understanding how blessed we truly are is that it can help with reducing spending across all of the budget categories (not simply food).

Understanding the difference between needs and wants was one major way that we accomplished reducing our grocery spending without feeling deprived. My current spending of $100 a week is not even close to being a “bare bones, only what we need” budget. I purchase PLENTY of wants as well. Like I said, I’m not necessarily asking you to not purchase ANY wants. Just identify them and be realistic about what you’re choosing to do. Be real about calling a want, a want.

Another way in which our family worked on this was to put up pictures of our sponsored children and some other projects we have supported on our family room wall. Every time we come in our back door, we have a visual reminder to us of how much we really do have. It has been a very effective strategy for us in increasing our thankfulness and awareness of how many things in our life are wants rather than needs. And how many people in our world struggle on a daily basis just to meet their basic needs.

Please don’t think this is about guilt. I don’t believe in giving out of guilt. To me that is the same as obligation (see my post yesterday for my feelings on giving out of obligation ). It’s about awareness. And it’s a great way to encourage contentment. Contentment is a hard emotion to grab hold of, but when you’re there - it truly is one of the most worthwhile feelings you could ever experience. I’m sure if you could bottle it, you’d make a small fortune. LOL.

So that’s my suggestion for the next stage in reducing your grocery budget. Go through your shopping trolley (or supermarket docket) and identify how much of what you are spending is on needs and how much is on wants. Start to identify how blessed you really are and see if it makes a difference in how you view your shopping trolley and what kinds of things you put in it.

Now on occasion I have mentioned in my posts a website called Simple Savings. You can join their free newsletter at their website. They also offer a paid section to their website. I mostly tend to avoid websites where you need to pay in order to get information. It seems almost counter productive to frugality to me. And there are plenty of websites that will offer great ideas for free. For some reason I decided to pay the membership fees for this particular one. I think because they have a money back guarantee with their membership. I’m actually really glad I did. It gives you access to a vault but the most valuable part of it I have discovered in recent years is the forum where members get to discuss ideas on how to save money and support one another in all kinds of ways. Membership fees are $47 for the first year and then $17 to renew each year after that. The reason I am mentioning them now is that they have a sale on until 11pm Sunday 18th (Australian time - I’m assuming EDST but not sure) for $35. So if you’ve been contemplating taking out a membership, now is a great time to do so. My apologies to those non-Australian readers. This is an Australian website and may not be of as much interest to you (I’m sure you’d be welcome to join though if you wanted to).

If you don’t wish to purchase a membership, I’d still recommend you sign yourself up for their free newsletters with great tips. After all, you can’t go wrong with free. Here is a link to the website:

(Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link. There is an explanation of how affiliate links work in my sidebar. My comments however, have no bearing on the fact that it is an affiliate link. If you are concerned about this, go directly to their website http://www.simplesavings.com.au/ rather than via the link above.)

Over the coming weeks I want to work my way through the categories I listed in my original post on this topic. Non Food, Fruit & Veg, Meat, General Groceries and Treats (have I covered them all?) Does anyone have a preference for which category you’d like me to start with?

A list of other Frugal Friday participants can be found at
Biblical Womanhood.

This is the third post I have written in a series about how we reduced our grocery spending. If you haven’t already had a chance to read the first two, or would like to review them, you can find them here:

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One

So, back to the “how low can you go” game/concept. How do you know when it’s time to stop trying to lower the bar? Best not to keep going until you fall flat on your back. I think it’s helpful at this point if you can understand a little of your own personality here. With my budget amounts, I prefer to allow a little bit MORE than what we *really* need. I personally find that if I have overspent on our budget, I’m more likely to throw the towel in and spend more. All the time that I’m comfortably under budget, I seem to find it easier to spend less. Some people have a tendency to spend every last cent so if they allowed a “buffer” amount in their budget, they would always spend that. If you’re that kind of person, adding a buffer amount into your budget is only going to encourage you to spend more.

One thing about budgetting in general that I have found really hard to get my head around is allowing some flexibility. When I decide what our budget will be for various categories, I usually do so for a 12 month period and during that time things can change. I’m not so good at dealing with change. I much prefer things to stay the same. One way I do get around this is by allowing some “buffer” in my grocery budget. Like I said before, that will work for some and might not work so well for others. Just be aware that you need *some* flexibility when it comes to budgets (without giving yourself permission to just spend whatever you feel like! LOL).

What you really want to avoid as much as possible is frustrating yourself. If you feel like you’re somehow “failing” in your attempts, it’s more likely that you’ll give up. That’s what we want to avoid. If you expect to be able to decide on a budget without allowing any flexibility along the way, there is a real danger of that happening.

I hope I’m explaining myself clearly enough here. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask by using either the comments section or the “email me” section of my profile.

Next Week : I’m planning to begin writing some suggestions for ways to cut those grocery budgets. If you haven’t yet started tracking what you’re spending on the groceries - now’s the time to get started so that you have some way of knowing whether or not you’re actually succeeding.

My DS has been busy this week playing with items that I’ve bought in preparation for his 4th birthday party. The party is still about a month away and the items are just sitting in the box waiting. That might sound very organised to some but with shops so far away from us, I HAVE to be prepared ahead of time.

Watching him playing with this stuff has been quite interesting and thought provoking. We’re not talking mega exciting items here. A tablecloth, some party hats, loot bags, a box of tissues, a couple of bags of lollies (okay they are exciting)… He keeps getting them out of the box and looking at them, *knowing* that they’re for his party. *Knowing* that he has a party to look forward to.

Now he has started to create games using these items. Yesterday he got them all out and used them to build himself a “cubby” by lining them up next to each other in a circle around himself (amazing imagination and creativity that kids have). What really struck me though was the extra VALUE I was getting out of these items. Not only were they going to serve their purpose at his actual birthday party, but they’ve already provided hours of entertainment for him (I’m keeping my fingers crossed he doesn’t damage them in the meantime lol). It’s almost like getting “2 for the price of 1″. LOL.

I think that delayed gratification can work like that too. There is value in the “looking forward” to something that we miss out on when we purchase what we want straight away. We live in a “want it and want it right now” world and I think we’re missing out on something when we are like that. We miss out on the enjoyment of thinking, planning, saving and looking forward to an event or purchase. Those things ADD value to how we’re spending our money.

In contrast, to have it NOW we not only miss out on the added value, we also SUBTRACT value from the purchase. It’s not a lot of fun having to pay for something AFTER the event. So that begins to become a burden and SUBTRACTS value from our purchase. Add onto that any interest payments and the overall cost has risen - again reducing the value/fulfilment vs $$ spent equation.

I’m the kind of person that likes to get as much value for my $$ as possible. So I’m actually feeling quite chuffed that DS is getting so much value out of my small purchases. Each time he gets these things out to play with (which are still in their packets by the way), he’s actually increasing the value per $$ I’ve spent.

This is part 2 in a series I’m writing on how I reduced our grocery budget. If you haven’t already seen it, you might like to begin with part one.

Reducing the Grocery Budget-Part One

How did we go with keeping track of what we spent this week? Any major surprises, pleasant or otherwise?

I want to give you a couple of warnings this week (okay, well 3 actually which I guess is 1 more than a “couple” but you get the idea right?).

1. Be careful that you’re NOT reducing your grocery spending by simply eating out of your cupboard and pantry without replacing it. You might keep your spending low for a few weeks but you won’t have made any long term changes. I know when it’s all new and exciting you want to see results STRAIGHT AWAY. Just be aware that reducing the grocery spending is a LONG term project. It has taken me 3 years to get to the point I’m at now. On the other hand, don’t be too discouraged for now if your spending doesn’t go down straight away. The most important thing right now is that you KNOW what you’re spending on groceries so that we have something to work from.

Now, using on your reserves/stocks/whatever you want to call it is NOT a bad thing in itself. If you’re a chronic hoarder like me, it could actually be a GOOD thing. It’s just important to realise that you may not have actually reduced your spending all that much - instead you’re making use of money spent in the past. Of course, if you’re a chronic hoarder like me then you may also find that what you spend on groceries is actually *too much* which gives you room to move down a little without too much hardship.

I found when I first started out doing this that my grocery spending went down for a short time (because I was using up on stores), then it went back up again and I wondered what I was doing wrong. Then for a while it stayed the same - and that can be very frustrating. Rising food prices and growing children can really put a dent in our efforts to reduce the grocery spending. Understand that keeping your spending the same IS actually reducing your grocery budget. I found for a while that all my efforts were doing was keeping up with inflation. In other words, as I learnt new ways to trim the grocery budget, those savings were eaten up by price increases.

As I continued to learn new ways to cut my spending and developed new habits, eventually my efforts started to show. My savings started to outweigh those price increases and the spending gradually started to come down.

2. Beware the news articles blaring “food prices to increase”. I *hate* these kinds of reports. What do they really do to help the consumer? In my opinion, nothing. It gives supermarkets some leeway to increase prices without consumer backlash AND it causes people to spend unnecessarily. If you *expect* your grocery spending to go up - believe me, it will!!! To me spending is like an untrained puppy. Let it off it’s leash and who knows where it might end up.

Yes, price increases are a fact of life. Yes, the drought *has* to have *some* effect on our prices. BUT, I think if we were to look back through history at the changing grocery store trolley. I think we would see a lot MORE than simply “a loaf of bread has gone from 10c to $10″ type scenario. PART of the increase in grocery spending has to do with WHAT is in the trolley - not simply inflation, effects of drought and so on.

So, allow *some* leeway in your budget and expectations of what it is going to cost to feed your family. But be aware that “food prices are on the rise” isn’t an excuse to simply cut loose and spend more money.

3. There is a HUGE temptation when you’re trying to cut your grocery spending, to want to compare what you’re spending with what everyone else is spending. I know because I’ve been there done that many times. It’s not that is doesn’t have *some* merit in giving you an idea on what is *possible*. It’s just that it is very hard to compare apples with apples. Everyone’s situation is different. Things like amounts of food consumed, whether or not they have a separate take away budget, do they eat at grandparents house once a week, do they have an Aldi, do they live on a farm and get very cheap lamb….. The variations as so endless that it really is hard to make an accurate comparison.

If you feel the need to *compete* (as many of us seem to lol), then compete with yourself. And compete AGAINST the grocery stores. I once read a great article about grocery shopping being a game. Unfortunately I can’t remember where I read it or who wrote it so I can’t give them appropriate credit. Instead, I’ll just steal their idea, paraphrase it and write it here so you can all think I’m an absolute genius. LOL. No-one gets a choice as to whether or not they’d like to play the game. If you EVER buy anything, then you’re already a player whether you like it or not. It’s quite a simple game really. You keep money in your pocket and you WIN. You spend all you’ve got and then some and the grocery store WINS. So next time you’re doing the grocery shopping, make use of all that competitive energy and KEEP some of your money.

Having said all that, I am now going to give you my grocery spending figures for the month of October. LOL.

My total spend for October ended up being $472.73. With 5 Wednesdays (my usual shopping day) in October, I needed to keep it under $500 in order to maintain my $100 a week average spend. So on the surface it looks like I’ve done well this month. But I’ve chosen this month to make a few faux-par’s, just for educational purposes of course. ROFLOL. Not really, it was fluke but it sounds good, right?

Bear in mind that I have been tracking and analysing my grocery spending for 3 years now (does that make me sound like an analy-retentive, obsessive-compulsive, has no life looney-toon?????) so before I even looked at my figures I could tell you a few things about our current position:

* I’ve overspent on treats (made evident by the fact that my jeans are too tight at the moment)
* I bought very little meat and what I did buy was “chuck in the oven cos you can’t be bothered cooking” crap (for a very good reason of course - DH is busy with harvest or he would be if the weather were right).
* Fruit and veg spending will be up a little because I’ve bought fresh pineapple (twice), strawberries and grapes (both not really “in season” quite yet), more than normal amount of frozen veg (see comment about “can’t be bothered cooking” above) and my fridge is currently still full of fruit and veg.
* I can’t have done *too* badly because well, there IS food in the cupboard, fridge and freezer.

So, let’s look at the nitty gritty’s of my spending for October:

Fruit & Veg - $118.08 That’s good. Up on what I’ve spent some months but still well below budget and I *know* we’ve been eating a fair bit of fruit and veg. Gotta love those cheaper fruit and veg stalls (when you can get to them). We have started to eat more out of the vegie garden so maybe that’s starting to show a little in the spending. Now I just need to make some choices about whether I *want* those savings to be eaten up by buying a few of the more expensive items (a very valid choice as long as it is a CHOICE and not just something happening that I’m not paying attention to) or do I want those savings in my pocket.

General - $297.31 As I said in my last post, I no longer track meat separately but I did have a quick look through my receipts and I *think* I spent just over $40 on meat. Which means this figure is a little higher than I would like it to be for the month. We’ve been using on our stockpile of meats and there isn’t really anything left in this category to cover that.

Treats - $38.33 Well up on what I usually spend and definitely overbudget.

Non-Food $15.73 Most of that was toilet paper. LOL. No, we don’t spend $15 a month on toilet paper but I do stock up when it’s on special and it just so happens there were a couple of specials this month.

Now for any of you “maths scholars” out there (do any maths “people” actually *read* blogs? wave if you do)…. my figures don’t add up. There is a $3.28 *gap* cos I spent $3.28 from my hospitality category. I wasn’t going to admit that as I thought it made me look really “inhospitable” to spend such a measly amount. LOL. But then the perfectionist in me couldn’t let it go in case *someone* happened to notice.

So, have you had a look at your spending figures? Do they reflect where you want your money to go or is there some tweaking that could be done? This week, keep writing down what you’re spending on groceries (yeah, I know last week I said you only had to do it for 1 tiny little week….I lied, okay? You still only have to do it for 1 week…..just 1 week at a time. ).

What are you thinking right now? Will, she hurry up and get on with revealling the *secret formula*? Or at least start making suggestions on how I can buy $500 worth of food with just $50. LOL. (no, that aint gonna happen).

Okay - here’s the “secret formula” (or at least *part* of it). When you build a house you start by preparing a good foundation. If you don’t take the time to build a good foundation, at the first sign of stormy weather, you might find yourself in a little bit of trouble. Building a “you beaut” house without first preparing a firm and solid foundation is really not a wise idea.

Dealing with something like the grocery budget is the same. I could give you a whiz bang list of ideas on how to get more for your money. But if we don’t start by taking the time to build a good, solid foundation, at the first sign of stormy weather, your grocery budget may well fall in a sodden heap.

Next Friday I want to talk about how to figure out the “right” budget for your groceries. Until then, happy shopping (and eating) everyone. LOL. Don’t forget to keep recording what you’re spending…..I promise you it’ll all be worth it in the end. At least I hope it will………..

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post in the comments section. Or you can contact me via email if you prefer some privacy/anonymity - just click on “view my complete profile” about half way down the left hand sidebar (currently under the little green “technorati” button) then click on “email” near the top of my profile on the left hand side.

Every now and then I mention the group “Frugal Aussies” when I’m talking about my journey toward a more frugal lifestyle. They were a HUGE influence in helping me work our finances so that we could buy a home WITHOUT me having to go back to work. In saying that, I’m not advocating that all women NEED to be stay at home mums. The thing is, that’s what I REALLY wanted to be able to do and they helped me to achieve that.

We’re just about sharing ideas with each other and supporting one another along the road to getting more value for our $$$. It’s a yahoo group and so FREE to join. None of us are “experts”. We’re just a group of friends with a common goal. Our ideas vary a lot so you can at times get some interesting discussion happening.

If you’re interested in joining us, you can find this group here:

Frugal Aussies

I know some of my readers are also on that group. You might want to add a little “hi” or make a comment about how you find the group to give other readers an idea of what it is like. I do allow anonymous comments (although it is nice if you place your name or initials or a nickname at the end of your comment) so you don’t have to be a member of blogger in order to leave a comment here. Just click on “post a comment” and another window should pop up where you can do that.

I will be back soon (ish) to post about this week’s electricity challenge results.

I like to use Epsom Salts in the bath when I have one. Apart from being good for your skin, you absorb the Magnesium and Sulphate through the skin. I seem to need more magnesium than I’m getting from my diet so it seems like a nice simple way to get it into my system. The sulphate is supposed to help with ridding the system of toxins. I’m no expert when it comes to this kind of thing but I figure anything that *might* help without a risk of being harmful is worth a go. I also tend to chuck it in the kids bath. They all suffer from dry skin (was excema when they were younger but has improved to the level of dry skin) and the Epsom Salts in the bath seems to really help with that.

I’d heard the cheapest place to buy Epsom Salts was a horse supply place so when I had the chance of being near one, we went in to ask about them. I thought I was doing the right thing asking for Magnesium Sulphate when I went in to this place that hardly looked like a shop at all (and was behind a scrap yard of all places!). All I got was a blank look from the guy behind the counter. Eventually he asked me if it was the same as Epsom Salts. LOL. Next time I’ll just ask for Epsom Salts. Anyway, it cost me $2.50 kg. Last time I purchased a 1kg box from Woolworths it cost me $5.71 so it’s quite a significant savings.

Are you wondering how all this relates to Science at Home yet? LOL. I’m getting there. On Sunday I had a bath using these Epsom Salts. I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t keep painkillers down so I figured a soak in the tub might help - as well as help with not getting dehydrated. Because I had a 5kg bag of Epsom Salts I decanted some into a glass jar.

Yesterday when DS got home from school, he asked me what the white stuff in the jar was. Not expecting it to mean anything to him, I told him that it was Epsom Salts. Turns out he DOES know about Epsom Salts. I think this 9 year old knows a LOT of stuff that I have no idea he knows.

This term he’s been involved in a program called “Challenge”. It’s designed for kids who find regular work reasonably easy and challenges them in other ways. So far I’ve been really impressed with the program (it has a fantastic teacher running it who has a gifted child of her own so she seems to really understand them). And DS seems to really love it.

Now he’s quite excited to discover that we have Epsom Salts at home and wants to show me an experiment they did with an egg at school. You add Epsom Salts to the water and a fresh egg that sinks to the bottom, will float instead. I asked him if he knew why that was. He said it was to do with hard vs soft water. Adding the Epsom Salts to the water makes it harder and therefore stronger and able to hold the egg up. So there you have it - I learnt something new. My understanding of hard water is limited to how it affects how much washing powder you need to use! LOL. If you live in an area where there are a lot of minerals in the water, you need to use more washing powder to get the same results. If you use something like rainwater which is very low in minerals, you need to use less washing powder. So I guess with Magnesium being a mineral (I have no idea about the sulphate part), by adding it to rainwater, you do indeed make the water “harder”. What I didn’t know was that “hard” water means it is stronger.

It’s nice to know he’s having fun and learning some new things at school. Next he wants to show me how putting an egg into vinegar with make the shell go soft. Should be interesting.

Well we’re now at the completion of our first week of the electricity challenge.

The figures look great. Our average daily usage has dropped from 18.45 to 15.68 and average daily hot water usage has dropped from 3.8 to 2.6.

Unfortunately, we were also away for 2 days last week. LOL. So that would account for the drop in usage.

The kids came with me this morning to see where the electricity meter was and how I read it which was great (they were actually ready for school early - amazing!).

In my mind, this challenge is as much about raising our awareness of not wasting electricity as anything and I think it’ll take a while before the kids form new habits of turning lights off and opening their curtains etc. I’m hoping by filling in our form each week, it’ll serve as a regular reminder to them (without me specifically nagging them).

At this stage I’ve set our form up to run the challenge for 10 weeks. So we’ll see what happens over that time frame.

For the form I used a basic table in Word format with the headings running across the top line:

Date : Last week : Today : Week’s Usage : Average Daily Usage : Last Week Hot Water : Today Hot Water : Week’s Usage : Average Daily Usage

It would be so wonderful if we *could* get our average daily usage down to around the 15kWh per day. Not sure how realistic that is. Whatever improvements we make will be good though.

This is my Tuesday post. I have to post it Monday night but it is *meant* to be my post for Tuesday. So if the date says Monday, you’ll just have to pretend. LOL.

Recently a topic was started on the Simple Living network encouraging people to share 10 things that they do to stay frugal. She was in particular looking for those that perhaps were “less common or obvious”.

I thought it was a great topic for discussion so I’ve copied my own response here:

“Great thread. I think even the really “obvious” ones are still new to someone at some time. I know only about 3 years ago I was one of those “someone’s”.

1. Tracking our spending has to be the biggest one for us in terms of how much difference it has made to our spending.

2. Having goals for the “why’s” of frugality.

3. Putting a debt chart up on our office wall as a visual reminder of what we’re trying to achieve (that’s finished now so I need a new visual reminder).

4. Having some pictures of our sponsored children on our family room wall as a constant reminder of how much we truly do have.

5. Regular decluttering. I find I’m less inclined to buy things when I’m in declutter mode.

6. Being part of a forum like this where there is regular encouragement, inspiration and like minded people.

7. Becoming more aware of the damage consumerism is doing to our environment - I find money alone isn’t always a good motivator but something like the environment helps keep me on track.

8. Budgetting a small amount for “treats” and having that in cash so that we never really feel deprived and know if we really want something we can. Now that we give ourselves spending money I can understand why the kids always want to spend my money and not their own - it’s kind of nice to hold onto. LOL.

9. Menu planning - seems to cut down both our grocery bill AND our take away bill.

10. Knowing prices - with groceries, clothing etc. Taking time to shop around, waiting for sales etc.

Wow - I’m actually amazed that I came up with 10. I thought I’d only have a couple to share.”

So, now it’s over to you. What 10 things do you do to stay frugal?

I’ve been busy making pies this morning. My 9 year old was wanting me to make *real* pies this time. My first attempt was chicken and vegetable pies (which were yum in my opinion but not so yum according to the kids) and my second attempt was steak and mushroom (which went down slightly better with the kids). So today I’ve been making *real* pies with mince and gravy.

Hopefully they won’t notice that I’ve added TVP and red lentils to the mixture. LOL. I actually made up the mix in the crockpot yesterday. Today was making the pastry and rolling it out and assembling the pies. It’s a bit time consuming but I don’t really mind. To me it’s worth it to know what has gone into my pies.

This time I used bought mince but from now on I’m thinking of making my own mince. I bought a large beef roast on sale recently and chopped it up and put it into my food processor and it made lovely looking mince. The smell almost put me off meat for life but it’s nice to be confident of what we’re eating. I do have a couple of packets of bought mince that need using though so one of those went in the pie filling.

Here’s a picture of my “pile of pies”:

Like all good bloggers, I hid the ones that didn’t look quite as good on the bottom of the pile. LOL. I don’t know why I get so hung up on perfection. After all, there is something so clinical about food that all looks *exactly* the same isn’t there. Here’s a slightly more close up view of my pies:

I’m trying to work out how much they cost to make. Most of my figures are approximate/guestimates.

For the filling:

2 cups TVP - 80c

1 cup red lentils - 30c

574g mince - 3.44

4 Tbsp gravy powder - 20c

2 Tbsp cornflour - 5c

hearty beef soup sachet (I didn’t have any beef stock) - 25c

1 Tbsp tomato paste - 20c

shallots - from the garden, cost negligible

salt & pepper - cost negligible

water - free

Total $4.99

I used just over half the mixture (froze the rest for another time) so approx $2.50 or slightly more.

Pastry:

250g butter - $1.10

2 3/4 cups plain flour - 30c

2 3/4 cups SR flour - 30c

Total for pastry: $1.70

Total cost for 20 pies: $4.20 so 21c each. Bargain!

If you want to make up the pastry you add 1 cup hot to butter and mix until butter dissolves. Then mix the lot together with the flour (I use a dough hook on my Kenwood). Then I shove it in the fridge to cool down a bit to make rolling out easier.

I made a discovery today with the pastry too. With using up the scraps, instead of trying to squish them together in a ball and then roll out again (which is hard as the pastry gets tough), I just overlapped all the rolled out bits and rolled them together. Was much quicker and easier and they seemed to stick together alright (just don’t use too much flour on your board the first time round).

I can’t vouch for how my filling recipe (if you can call it that) tastes as I haven’t tasted it yet. DH did a taste test last night and told me it tasted nice so fingers crossed it passes the family test at tea tonight. We’re having meat pies, chips and salad for tea tonight. It’s fake take away night tonight.

I think I must have been bitten by the cooking bug these past 2 days. Yesterday I made a big pot of tomato and vegetable soup (having some for lunch right now in fact). Also made an experimental batch of crumpets. Added more raising agents to try and get a lighter crumpet. I did succeed in a lighter crumpet but had very few holes so I’m still going to experiment with the recipe a little more. I also made the pie filling yesterday. Today I have made the pies and a batch of yoghurt as well as some spreadable butter (butter and olive oil whizzed together).

I’m looking forward to a nice quiet afternoon this afternoon!

Inspired yet again by Rhonda Jean I have decided to make my current “cut our spending” challenge the electricity bill. As with most frugality projects, this also has an impact on the environment so there are lots of benefits all round.

In timely fashion, our latest electricity bill arrived in the mail yesterday. As expected, it was quite a large bill. Thankfully, our usage was a little down on what we used last winter. But it was still quite a shocker. The total of the bill was $762.94!!! Our average daily usage was 45.5kWh.

I know…. Thankfully winter is our worst month for electricity usage by FAR! Our usage over the rest of the year hovers closer to the 20kWh per day mark.

Interestingly enough, the topic of electricity bills has come up on a yahoo group I’m on. So there’s been lots of talk about electricity usage around the place of late. So yesterday, as part of that discussion, I was contemplating why our winter electricity bill is so high.

We don’t have any gas here so ALL of our power usage (other than the solar hot water system which is at it’s lowest effectiveness during winter) is electricity.

The tumble dryer is 1 culprit. Once upon a time I would wait for finer days to do my washing. But now that I wash 7+ loads a week, I just don’t find that practical. I need to keep up with a load a day or I get overwhelmed. We do have plans for an undercover clothes line but with starting from scratch with our own place, these things all seem to take time (and money) to get established.

By far though, I think our biggest problem is heating. We built our house in such a way that we get a wonderful lot of winter sun through the north windows during the day. Unfortunately with the bedrooms on the south side, we struggle with the temperature in the bedrooms overnight. We don’t heat them all the time, only when one of us is sick. We seem to have a tendency toward asthma and croup so whenever someone gets a cold they get a horrible cough during the night and the only thing that helps is warm air. With 2 column oil heaters and a fan heater for heating the bedrooms during this time, I think that’s where our biggest usage problem lies. I’ve seen some bedroom heaters that are very economical that I’ve been wanting to get for the kids rooms. Looks like I need to bump them up to a higher priority on my “to buy” list (for next winter).

While this all sounds really bad (our electricity usage I mean), we have made HUGE improvements in our electricity usage since we moved house. It used to cost us around $3000 a year in electricity. Around $900 in winter and summer and $600 in the in between seasons. The reasons for it being higher were partly due to paying for many of my FIL’s older appliances (he had an outside room at our house for his own use). Installing a solar hot water system and purchasing our own fridge (we had an old one on loan at the other house) have also helped as has going to a single meter. We were paying for multiple meter readings at the other house with a separate meter for farm usage. Here the farm is all on our house meter (but it’s actual usage of electricity is fairly minimal).

The first year we were in our own home, our usage dropped by almost half. Since then the bill has been creeping up a little - partly due to increasing electricity prices and partly due to the fact that I just haven’t focused on trying to keep it down.

We’ve made a start with the $$ side of things. DH rang our electricity provider yesterday and asked if we were on the best deal they could give us and they’ve offered us a 5% discount on all future bills. So that’s $$ in our pocket for very minimal effort.

For the purpose of this challenge though, I’m going to focus on kWh’s rather than $ as that seems to be the best comparison to be made. Our electricity costs, being rural, are higher per unit than some so the easiest way to compare is to focus on our actual usage in kWh’s. It’s also a way to measure in between bills as I can read the meter as often as I like.

So, I talked to the kids the other day about doing an electricity challenge and they are all excited about the fact. We’ve decided that we’ll begin next Monday when I’ve taken a second meter reading and we can use that as a comparison as to whether we’re making progress with our efforts. I’m focusing on the environmental benefits rather than the $$ benefits with them. They discuss the environment quite a bit at school so it fits well with what they’re learning.

For the past couple of years, we’ve continued to budget the $3000 that electricity was costing us at our old home and have been using our electricity savings toward paying for our solar hot water system that we installed when we built this house. Now that the costs for that
are covered, DH and I had a conversation the other day about what we might do with our electricity savings. For some time now, I’ve been interested in installing solar panels for our electricity use. The cost has been somewhat prohibitive for us. So DH suggested that we earmark these savings for saving up for this. I was so excited that he seems to be finally on board with the idea!!! So, that’s what we’ll be doing. Another “compounding” effect for both our finances and the environment!!! We save money and energy and those savings go toward the possibility of saving more money and energy in the future!

I used to consider myself a “frugal shopper”. After all, I NEVER (well hardly ever) bought things at full price. In fact, since shopping was a hobby for me, I often came across irresistable bargains! So it came as something of a shock to me to discover that my shopping habits weren’t all that frugal after all. You see, I didn’t end up with any spare money in my pocket. I just ended up with more STUFF for my money!

Now, buying things on sale IS a part of being frugal. And it’s certainly a good way to go when $$ are tight and needs are high. I lived on Austudy living away from home allowance for a few years and $$ are definitely tight when you’re living in a flat on your own and having to find both living and study expenses from a very meager allowance (which I was still very grateful for of course).

The problem with me was that this behaviour didn’t stop when I started to have more $$ to manage. A good example of this was our kids Christmas presents. We set ourself a budget and most years I stuck to that budget. But I made it my challenge to get as many toys for that money as I possibly could. In my mind I was *saving* money but in actual fact I wasn’t saving myself any money - I was just buying more STUFF for my money. Now we have a $$ value budget based on full-price and anything I buy on sale, the money then becomes an actual SAVING.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post. What do you do with any money that you’ve saved through frugal habits? I now track all our spending and attempt to come in under budget on as many categories as possible. Some things (like our medical expenses) are hard to predict and so it’s not uncommon for 1 or 2 categories to end up in the red at the end of the year. But overall, since I’ve started this tracking of spending, we’ve always ended our year with some kind of surplus.

Spare money - isn’t that everybody’s dream? LOL. So then I had to decide what to do with it. Spend it? Mighty tempting. Save it? Maybe. Put it onto the mortgage? Probably *should* do that…. I ended up deciding that we would split the surplus. 60% went as extra payments on the mortgage, 20% went to building up our emergency fund and 20% we allocated to “blow” money.

I think having some *blow* money has been a really important part of our journey to a more frugal lifestyle. Sometimes things crop up through the year that we’d like to do but haven’t really *planned* or budgetted for. This created a bit of an issue for us. Do we blow the budget or feel deprived? Neither was really going to encourage us with our budgetting and frugality plans. So by setting aside some of our surplus each year, we have some money purely for *play* (in addition to any “play” money we include in our budget). It’s a nice reward for our frugal efforts and helps us not to get too intense as well. Both DH and I have a tendency to get a little TOO focused on a goal and can tend to overdo the frugality bit at times - so this is also a way to “shake us up a bit” and encourage us to let loose with the finances occasionally. I think in turn, it helps us to stick with the frugal stuff for the rest of the time instead of giving up because we’ve made it too hard for ourselves.

There is another good option though. You can put any money saved toward things that are going to lead to further savings in the future. Your savings then have a compounding effect a bit like cash savings in the bank do. Where the interest in the bank account starts to earn interest and over time the growth rate of your cash savings increases dramatically. The same can happen with frugality. If you *invest* the money saved into things that are going to save you more money in the future - your savings efforts can start to have a compounding effect.

This is what I’ve decided to do with my food money savings. At the end of this month I expect to have around $800 in our food budget that is surplus as a result of my “grocery challenge”. Usually I’d leave this in our bank account until the end of our budgetting year. But I’ve decided in this instance that I’m going to set that money aside separately and use it toward building up our fruit and vegetable garden and buying more chooks. Potentially I could turn that $800 of *savings* into thousands of dollars in savings over the next who knows how many years. So just like compounding interest, my savings can generate more savings and so on.

Well, that’s the plan anyway. LOL. I’ll keep you posted with how my “compounding” efforts go.

Well it’s getting to that time of the month again and I’ve been a bit slack with keeping my records up to date. So today is the day to get everything entered into my spending book and work out where I’m up to.

August has been a bit of a “spend up” month for me in the area of groceries. I’m not hugely worried about it and some of it was expected due to my low spending in July. One thing I’ve noticed though, is the number of packets of biscuits that I’ve bought. At a rough count up, I’ve bought 23 packets of biscuits this month. LOL. That’s a lot for me as I usually bake my own. Some of those have been due to very good prices, especially on those flavoured savoury biscuits (which I don’t make myself). At the moment the cupboard is well stocked with biscuits. And some of those are *hiding* in a box on the top shelf so they’ll last a little while.

I also bought 4 tubs of ice cream this month as they were a good price. That didn’t end up being the best of ideas though as DH saw all this ice cream and all of a sudden we were going through it a rapid pace. I’ll have to hide some if I want to stock up another time. LOL.

Here’s where the tally stands at the moment:

August so far: $496.08
July was $302.29 then I did a bulk buy at the butchers early in August (not included in the August tally as it was supposed to be in July) of $65.12

In order to stay under my $100 a week average spend I need to keep my combined spending for July and August to under $900. So far the total stands at $863.49 leaving me $36.51 for this week.

So providing I spend under $36.51 this week, I’ve achieved my goal. If I can do that even with my biscuit and ice cream blow out, I’ll be very happy. Given the fridge, freezer and cupboard are all full, there’s no reason why I won’t be able to keep the grocery spend to under that amount this week (just 1 shopping day left for the month).

It’s been a funny month for discussions on groceries. I keep a bit of an eye on how DH is feeling about what foods I’m buying etc as this challenge is really a *choice* challenge rather than a * necessity* challenge and I don’t want to continue it if DH is feeling at all “deprived” or frustrated with what foods I’m buying. Usually he’s pretty easy to keep happy.

A couple of weeks ago, DH was teasing me about the fact that I NEVER wanted to fill up our pantry cupboard. When we moved into this house, I had 4 boxes of pantry staples to move (despite my efforts to use them up before we moved lol) and when I unpacked them into the pantry cupboard the cupboard still looked empty. I knew that if I were to ever fill the cupboard, that would be a LOT of food. And yes… most of the time that cupboard is full! LOL. So every now and then DH likes to have a dig at me about the amount of food I keep on hand.

The thing is, he turned around a week or so later and told me that we were out of EVERYTHING. Of course, I just laughed at him for contradicting himself. Obviously I’m not the only one in this family with a tendency to exaggerate slightly. We were out of promite, peanut butter, spaghetti and baked beans and almost out of honey, vegemite and tomato sauce. I guess for a bloke that’s used to never running out of anything, it may have felt like we were starting to run out of *everything*. I suspect if we actually DID run out of tomato sauce, I would have had a mutiny on my hands. It’s a major food group in this household. LOL. I wonder if that’s a reflection on my cooking skills? LOL.

I did have everything under control though, knowing I was going to do a “pantry stock” shop over the weekend. Everything is now right with the world. :-)We have a BIG bottle of tomato sauce, promite, vegemite, 3 tubs of peanut butter as well as a number of cans of spaghetti and baked beans.

I have however decided it’s time for a new challenge. My *real* grocery budget is actually $129.23 a week. LOL. I kid you not. I budget monthly so it’s actually $560 a month and it doesn’t quite divide up evenly when you calculate it out to a weekly amount. I’m quite happy with what I’ve achieved. 8 months of averaging $100 or less. I intend to continue to track my grocery spending and will still keep it as low as possible. It just won’t be my “frugal focus”.

I’ve found through my journey into frugality, that I’m most successful with challenging myself if I limit it to one area of our spending at a time. I work on getting spending down in one area and making those changes into a habit. Then I move on to something different. Our spending will tend to go up slightly in an area once it is no longer my focus, but only by a small amount and usually not up to as high as it was before. It works for me and stops me getting overwhelmed. It also makes it into more of a game and therefore I have fun with it rather than seeing it as a *chore* or *deprivation*.

So what will my next challenge be? Well Rhonda over at Down To Earth is currently running an electricity challenge. So I thought I would join in with that for a few months and see how that goes. I’ll post more about my electricity challenge in the next couple of days.

As for the food budget surplus. I intend to skim that off to use for something else. I’ll also blog more about that over the next day or so.

DH has made me some crumpet rings by cutting up a large tinned fruit can. 6 fit perfectly in my rectangular electric frypan. I’ve been working on perfecting the original recipe I was given. The first batch I made didn’t have many holes in them. Then I found out from another person who makes their own crumpets that my recipe was missing the rising time.

Here they are - a batch of crumpets in my rings, just starting to bubble away.

And here they are, almost cooked. The verdict was that they now looked like bought crumpets (with the holes in the top) and they tasted like bought crumpets (well, better if you ask me). However, they still weren’t as light as a bought crumpet.

So, I intend to play around with the recipe a little more and see what I can come up with. What I still can’t get over is how easy they are to make. They are a little time consuming as I can only cook 6 at a time (and the recipe makes about 18) but other than that, they’re really so easy and so much cheaper than their shop bought counterparts. Plus I know exactly what has gone into them.

You can find the original recipe here if you don’t already have it. Just make up the mixture about an hour ahead of when you want to cook them. They can be eaten fresh (remember they still need to be toasted) or you can freeze them to use later.

I’ll let you know if I come up with a recipe variation that makes them a little lighter.

Yesterday was the day to go back and pick up our butchered and cut up sheep. Naturally I jumped in with DH for the ride so I could revisit my favourite op shop. 2 hauls in as many weeks! But it might be a while before I get back there again.

I wasn’t sure how much I would find having only been in there less than 2 weeks ago. Being a small country town I wouldn’t imagine their turnover is huge. Then again, visiting regularly is the way to snap up some really cool stuff (the kind of stuff that never hangs around long).

Here’s what I came away with:

* pumpkin patch warm denim jacket in size 5. I’ve been mourning my 3 year old growing out of the size 3 jacket that I bought at a pumpkin patch clearance sale years ago so this was by far my most exciting find of the day!

* plain denim jeans and a nike jumper for my 9 year old.

* a striped winter top with matching scarf for DD (should fit her next year).

* a Wiggles Anthony toy for DS. He has Murray so now he has 2. I paid $15 for Murray when I bought him so 50c for one in excellent condition was a bargain!!!

* a soft merino wool jumper in excellent condition.

* a pair of Adidas shorts for myself that feel like they’re still brand new. Even better was finding them stashed amongst the kids stuff so they were only 50c!!!!

* black top and denim capri pants for me (also in kids section for 50c each).

Here’s a photo of my “haul”:

I spent a grand total of $7!!!! DS also picked up a toy car but he didn’t want to stop playing with it long enough to add it to my photo. LOL. I don’t think the lady charged me for it either as DS was having such a great time playing with it while I was browsing.

I did contemplate buying some knitting patterns they had there but I wasn’t sure I was quite up to something too complicated. So I left them and I’ll see how I go with the knitting before I get too carried away with buying patterns. I have to be careful as it’s just as easy to pick up too many bargains and end up with a heap of unnecessary stuff cluttering up the house.

And on a note totally unrelated to op shopping - the first of the lettuces I planted 10 days ago have just popped out of the ground!!!!! Who would have thought there’d be so much excitement over a tiny little green shoot. LOL. I have planted some other seeds so hopefully we’ll see them soon.

This is part 3 in a series about my journey from mindful consumerism toward a more simpler lifestyle. If you haven’t read part 1: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step or part 2: Joe Dominguez , you might like to take a moment to read those first.

Before I get too far into what I want to share in this post, I do want to let you know that we haven’t followed all of the recommendations that were part of the tape series by Joe Dominguez. S